Special Report: CHOICE looks at clothing sizes in Australia

CHOICE is the largest not-for-profit consumer organisation in Australia and an advocate for those shoppers who “are getting a raw deal”. This week they have released their look into the irregularities in clothing sizes in Australia, and you’re getting the scoop here at IndividualChic.com.

If you’re a woman living in Australia, you’re probably not surprised at all to learn that there is no Australian Standard for adults clothing (though there is for children). I’ve often gone into a store to try on clothing that was nominally my size, only to find the zipper wouldn’t do up, or the buttons wouldn’t fasten. On one memorable occasion in Target, I tried on a pair of size 18 pants from the normal range, and a size 18 from the Options Plus range. The normal range fit just nicely, the Options Plus range was at least three sizes too big; we’re talking a 5 centimetre gap between me and the pants (and I want to know what you do if your size falls between the two).

Not only are there discrepancies between brands, but often there are discrepancies between the one size in the same brand. Poor cutting or sewing of the garment can make a real difference to the final fit. One of the standard recommendations for shoppers buying jeans is to try on several pairs of the same size to make sure you get the best fit.

Kate Brown, CHOICE journalist, took herself on a shopping trip down Pitt Street Mall (the main shopping strip in Sydney) to check out just how bad the problem was.

It was bad.

The straight black skirts she tried on that fitted ranged from a size 10* to a size 14, which is an excessive amount of swing.



The last standard (dropped for being irrelevant in 2007) was based on a survey taken in 1926 and updated in 1974. How irrelevant is that! The UK, Spain, France, China, Japan, the US and Germany have all managed to survey portions of their population, so why can’t we? A national survey would certainly be a good start.

Check out the full article at CHOICE. You can follow the conversation on Twitter using the tag #choicesize.

If you could ask the spokesperson at CHOICE a question about the full article, what would it be? Let me know in the comments.

* For you overseas readers a size 10 Australian corresponds to US Size 6, UK Size 8, France Size 36, German Size 34, Italy Size 40, Japan Size 9. Get all conversions at Online Conversion.

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